Lumina Foundation Awards $12.5 Million in Third-Quarter Grants

November 3, 2008

The Lumina Foundation for Education has announced grants totaling more than $12.5 million to forty-one organizations working to expand student services, convene policy meetings, and support research in the areas of college access and success.

In addition, the National Center for Educational Accountability was awarded $1 million to build capacity at the state level to share data across educational sectors; the Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media was awarded $977,600 to expand its efforts to improve news reporting on higher education finance, community college, and postsecondary attainment issues; and Teachers College at Columbia University was awarded $517,400 to examine effective policy and implementation design features that make performance funding systems more likely to be adopted by states.

"Through our grantmaking, Lumina continues its dedication to increasing the number of students who go to college and stay in college until they earn the degrees that will keep them and our country competitive," said Lumina president and CEO Jamie Merisotis. "At no time in our history has this been more important. As baby boomers retire, our economy will depend increasingly on a workforce dominated by minorities, first-generation college-goers, and students from low-income families who struggle to afford and succeed in higher education."